For example, in the fields of research, industry, machinery and estate management, various sensitive elements are often subjected to fluid flow such as liquid or gas flow. Such elements may include filters to filter out impurities from the fluid and e.g. different kinds of sensor devices that bear a measuring probe sensitive to particles or other ingredients or properties of the fluid flow passing by or through the element.
Typically these kinds of elements interacting with the fluid do require replacement or some sort of maintenance, such as cleaning, either regularly or upon specific need.
For instance, in connection with automated ventilation and air-conditioning devices a number of standards and recommendations including various Eurovent recommendations regarding air filters have been produced. They are ought to provide guidelines on measuring and characterizing air filters to enhance or guarantee the associated air quality and facilitate estimating the associated energy consumption, not forgetting the energy costs.
Indeed, theoretical estimate of a filter's energy consumption E based on average pressure loss and constant air flow can be determined as
                    E        =                                            Q              ⁢                              P                _                            ⁢              T                                      η              ⁢                                                          ⁢              1000                                ⁢                      (            kWh            )                                              (        1        )            
wherein Q refers to air flow (m^3/s), Perefers to average pressure loss (Pa), T refers to operating time (hours) and n refers to the efficiency of the fan. For instance, over one year (8760 h) a 1 mA3/s filter with average pressure loss of 100 Pa requires 1250 kWh when the fan's efficiency is set at 70%.
The performance of the air filters in industrial applications, such as in conjunction with plants, has been mostly estimated relative to the efficiency (separation capability) and pressure loss (pressure drop). In particular, the amount of pressure loss that prevents the fan from maintaining a specific minimum airflow has often been theoretically defined, whereupon filter replacement or cleaning actions have been scheduled to take place accordingly. In particular, filter manufacturers have historically issued recommendations regarding the service interval of their products based on merely guesstimated average use frequency and use conditions thereof, such as simplistic “change the filter every six months” or “change the filter when the pressure drop exceeds 200 Pa”.
Nevertheless, as being clear to a skilled person, such recommendations are simply rough reflections, if anything, of real-life use conditions and filter degradation. Further, the aforementioned or other utilized mathematical formulae for assessing energy consumption are extremely coarse and do not correspond to real-time energy consumption of even relatively simple ventilation systems and air filters incorporated therein. As each true filtering scenario is basically unique relating to the filtering objective, environment, gear and/or positioning thereof, available general estimations do not fit any such scenario perfectly. As an outcome, the filters are serviced or changed too often or seldom resulting in unnecessarily high operation costs due to higher than required maintenance costs and/or energy costs, respectively. Notwithstanding the cost type induced, the underlying basic phenomenon, or problem, is then energy consumption that is higher than optimal thanks to over-simplified routines for timing the maintenance tasks including replacing or cleaning the filter.
Generally, environmental responsibility that is obviously related to energy efficiency and thus the overall minimization of energy consumption and e.g. carbon footprint is nowadays a major issue in each field where sustainable development is sought for, i.e. practically all industrial and technical fields. Therefore, the above defects arising from the mostly theoretical standpoint taken in the energy and service management of devices associated with fluid-interacting elements, such as more or less flow-resistive and energy consumption-affecting filters, do need solving without introducing heavy burden to the device manufacturers or users in terms of manufacturing complexity, cost, or use or maintenance complexity.